Basic Rules of the Road Needed for IP Transition, Experts Say

Public Knowledge CEO Gigi Sohn wrote that it’s an “appropriate time to review and update the rules for new technologies and ensure our communications policy continues to put everyday Americans first.” The IP transition should be governed by a basic regulatory framework that embraces five fundamental principles: service to all Americans, competition and interconnection, consumer protection, network reliability, and public safety, she wrote. Such rules of the road are needed to “defend the fundamental principles that have made our communications networks great.” Sohn will detail the issues with Verizon’s rollout of the wireless service it calls Voice Link on Fire Island, N.Y., as an example for what can go wrong without proper regulatory oversight. New York municipal officials recently protested the service, which they said creates public safety threats, allows Verizon to let its copper deteriorate, doesn’t support broadband access or point-of-sale transactions, doesn’t support Life Alert, and isn’t as reliable as traditional service (CD July 12 p17). Sohn plans to tell lawmakers that such problems “cannot become the new normal.”

Technology author and consultant Larry Downes wrote that the 19th century laws that govern the modern telecom marketplace fail to adequately address 21st century problems, in his advance testimony. As lawmakers consider ways to change these laws they should “consider adding a healthy dose of technological humility -— of adopting a ‘watchful waiting’ principle for disruptive technologies, and Hippocratic-like oath to ‘first do no harm,” he wrote. “Legislate only when it’s clear that there is no demonstrable harm to consumers, a remedy that isn’t so broad as to cause unintended negative side effects, and no reasonable hope that the next generation of technology will moot the problem before new rules can be crafted,” he wrote. Specifically he will recommend that policy makers clearly define the IP transition as a central federal policy objective; preempt state regulators from preserving the public-switched telephone network (PSTN) past their useful lives; set a date for PSTN retirement; retire legacy federal regulations that slow the IP transition; clarify that Title II regulations will never apply to IP networks; and refrain from asserting Title I ancillary authority to impose mandated interconnection requirements on IP networks.

Windstream CEO Jeff Gardner wrote that USF reform is “far from complete.” Gardner, chairman of the USTelecom board, plans to say “unresolved aspects of reform, coupled with slashing of intercarrier compensation, have created troublesome uncertainty for ‘price cap’ carriers and the consumers they serve.” Providers are also concerned about decreased investment for broadband service in rate of return areas and the FCC’s quantile regression analysis approach to calculating USF support. The FCC should “expeditiously examine and understand the real world effects of USF reform on rate-of-return companies and determine how to ensure that, in operation, it meets the Communications Act’s requirement that rural Americans have communications services comparable in quality and affordability to those in urban areas,” he wrote. Gardner plans to urge policymakers to restructure and modernize the commission’s regulatory approach in a way that “provides consumers and businesses with all the benefits of the Information Age.” “Modernizing our regulatory structure and planning for a smooth transition to an IP world are essential to the health of the wireline industry and all the benefits that it brings our nation, and it is critical that reforms be judicious and grounded in fact-based assessment of the modern communications marketplace,” he wrote.

National Telecommunications Cooperative Association CEO Shirley Bloomfield expects to tell lawmakers the FCC’s 2011 USF reforms have caused a “significant amount of regulatory uncertainty, have frustrated access to capital for network deployment, and have resulted in what might be called at least one ‘lost year’ in broadband deployment by small rural carriers, with the threat of more to follow,” according to her prepared testimony. She will ask policymakers to pursue four courses of action to ameliorate the FCC’s impact on the USF system: bring more transparency, accuracy, and predictability to the commission’s USF reforms; create a clear, simple process for carriers who need waivers from the FCC reforms; avoid additional cuts, caps, or constraints on USF support and ICC cost recovery until the FCC has evaluated the impact of changes already adopted and just now being implemented on consumers and core statutory objectives; and define a path forward for a sustainable broadband future for consumers in areas served by smaller carriers.

Comptel CEO Jerry James wrote in his prepared testimony that last mile access and interconnection rules are still needed to “ensure a competitive wireline marketplace today.” He plans to urge FCC officials to adopt interim rules to address incumbent carriers’ exclusionary, special access “demand lock up” plans; submit its data collection on special access prices, terms and conditions to the OMB for approval; and use the information it collects to do a market power analysis and adopt comprehensive final rules that govern the rates, terms, and conditions on which incumbent LECs must offer wholesale access to last-mile facilities in the geographic and product markets in which they possess market power, his testimony said.